In the past week or so, one of two things has happened. Depending on your perspective either…

A cool new game is bending the lines between the virtual and real-life world, simultaneously reuniting people with a nostalgic pastime from their childhood

Or

It is the nerd apocalypse.

Regardless of your perspective, you’ll agree that Pokemon GO is a phenomenon because it took something people already enjoyed and enhanced it with technology. It is an evolution. The game was re-imagined and updated with some clear advantages.

Why interact with actual people using a card game in your mom’s basement when you can instead stare at your phone and wander into traffic?

A similar (and decidedly much cooler) technology innovation has similarly changed the brewing industry.

Brewing sour beer was once the exclusive purview of large scale brewers who used a process called age-souring to deliver their distinctive tart bite. This was done via a long process, only possible for those with both the capacity and patience to ferment large batches over long periods of time.

The sours used extra fermentation in a chemical tug-of-war to deliver a distinctive tart taste. The process was tricky. One false move could mean contaminating an entire brewery. This made sours expensive to brew and purchase.

Bring on the innovation.

Kettle souring appeared on the scene and re-imagined the entire ballgame. By tweaking the order of the process, brewers could deliver the distinctive flavor profile of sours in small batches without the drawbacks and hazards. This made sours viable to smaller breweries.

EBC is fully on board with innovation and has several kettle-brewed sours to deliver via a limited release in our taproom beginning on July 21st.

Apricot Kettle Sour 5.4% 11 IBU
This brew balances the tartness of the sour with the sweet earthiness of apricot. The bubbly sour is a wonderful introduction to the innovation of kettle sours.

Raspberry Kettle Sour 5.2% 14 IBU
Loads of fresh raspberries shine through with every sip of this framboise style sour. It will appeal to the nerdiest of the beer nerds while also acting as pleasant entry point for novices.

To clarify, our new kettle sours are not cartoons you harvest with your mobile phone, but actual beers that you consume in our taproom with your friends.

For Pokemon Go players we should clarify that friends are other carbon-based life forms who you interact with via a process known as communication. This results in relationships.

While this may be out of your comfort zone, if you take it slow you should be fine and the beer can help.